Exclusive
Trending
In director Kristina Kraskov’s spirited Spreadsheet Champions, a group of young competitors from around the world vie for glory at the 2023 Excel Spreadsheet World Championships. We posed our Qs à la mode to Kristina, and here’s what she shared! If I had to describe my film using only...
Maybe it’s the titles I selected, or maybe this year’s crop of Hot Docs short documentaries is just really really strong, but many of my fave films screened so far have been under 30 minutes long. Here are seven shorts that I think deserve a spot on your festival...
Director Nathan Grossman follows a group of climate scientists as they explore feelings instead of facts over the course of a therapeutic weekend in Climate in Therapy. We posed our Qs à la mode to Nathan, and here’s what he shared! If I had to describe my film using...
Although the lineup at Hot Docs is quite a bit leaner this year — 113 films being screened in 2025 vs. 168 in 2024 — there’s no shortage of awesome documentaries unspooling. As usual, I’ve spent the past few weeks screening docs about everything from whistleblowers to Marlee Matlin...
In Parade: Queer Acts of Love & Resistance, director Noam Gonick and producer Justine Pimlott explore the history of 2SLGBTQI+ activism in Canada. We posed our Qs à la mode to Noam and Justine, and here’s what they shared! If I had to describe our film using only three...
Feature documentaries may get the bulk of the attention at Hot Docs, but documentary shorts are often some of the best and most memorable of every fest, due largely to their often uncannily brilliant ability to tell compelling stories under much tighter time constraints. This year’s festival is offering...
It’s that time of year again and, although the festival has scaled back and is screening fewer documentaries than in years past (113 in 2025 vs. 168 in 2024), there are still a slew of fun, fascinating and fabulous films that have piqued my interest. I’ve pored over the...
When posting my reviews of fest films, I like to group them by theme or subject matter rather than just randomly dumping them by day-of-the-week. But, every year, there are a handful of docs that, for whatever reason, don’t quite fit in with any of the grouping categories I...
Every year, the festival serves up a heaping plate of eco-themed docs and plenty of films about nature or humanity’s relationship to the natural world. This year was no exception. Here are eight that I checked out — some were great, some weren’t… and a couple were docs that,...
In Death of a Saint, director Patricia Bbaale Bandak travels to Uganda and reconnects with the past as she probes the murder of her mother 24 years earlier. We posed our Qs à la mode to Patricia, and here’s what she shared! If I had to describe my film...
With a broad range of topics served up in easily digestible bites, the short films at Hot Docs always prove that great (and, sometimes, not-so-great) things can come in small packages. Here are 10 of the shorts I checked out this year! Am I the Skinniest Person You’ve Ever...
Be it disability rights, prisoners’ rights or even the right to take ownership of your own cultural heritage, many fest films explore complex social issues. Here are five that I checked out. Norwegian Democrazy (4/8) I’m not entirely sure this condemnation of hate speech works quite the way co-directors...
